A coalition of abortion rights groups in Michigan filed an emergency complaint with the state’s Supreme Court on Thursday asking it to overturn the Board of State Canvassers’ decision earlier this week and order their abortion rights amendment to be placed on the November ballot.

The Reproductive Freedom for All group — which includes Planned Parenthood and the ACLU — argues that failing to put the measure on the ballot violates the rights of the more than 750,000 people who signed petitions over the last several months. The group asked the court to act by Sept. 7 to give the state adequate time to print and mail the ballots.

“Can the Board of State Canvassers disenfranchise over 753,759 Michiganders by avoiding their clear legal duty to certify the Petition proposed by Reproductive Freedom for All when the Petition has collected well beyond the requisite signatures and meets all statutory form of petition requirements? This Court’s precedent says no,” the filing states.

The amendment — now in limbo — would insert permanent protections into the state’s constitution not only for abortion but also for other reproductive health services, including miscarriage management, birth control, prenatal care and in-vitro fertilization. It also would stop the state’s 1931 abortion ban from going back into effect should state courts uphold it in two pending cases involving lawsuits by Planned Parenthood and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The ban, which has no exemptions for rape or incest, remains blocked by a lower county court.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is suing the Jan. 6 select committee, setting up a legal fight between one of the most prominent congressional investigations in recent memory and a Trump-backed candidate in a hotly contested midterm race.

Mastriano filed his suit on Thursday afternoon in federal court in Washington. It names the committee itself as a defendant, as well as each member of the panel and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In the suit, Mastriano argues that the committee’s rules and composition mean it cannot compel witnesses to sit for depositions. Mastriano is asking for declaratory relief — a request for the judge to declare the committee cannot compel him to sit for a deposition — as well as for the panel to pay his attorney’s fees.

In February, the committee subpoenaed Mastriano for documents and testimony. Shortly after winning the Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial primary in May, Mastriano produced a tranche of documents for the committee. He also signaled that he would participate in a voluntary interview. But the committee insisted Mastriano be deposed on videotape, according to the lawsuit. Numerous other witnesses have already been deposed on camera, and clips from their interviews have been featured prominently in the panel’s hearings.

The Senate’s Republican campaign chief on Thursday appeared to escalate an ugly quarrel with the party’s longtime leader in the chamber, Senator Mitch McConnell, in the latest sign of the G.O.P.’s eroding confidence about winning back the majority in November.

Without naming Mr. McConnell, Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, lashed out in a blistering opinion piece in The Washington Examiner at Republicans he said were “trash-talking” the party’s candidates, an apparent reference to comments last month in which Mr. McConnell said that “candidate quality” could harm the G.O.P.’s chances of retaking the Senate. Mr. Scott called such remarks “treasonous” and said those who make them should “pipe down.”

“Unfortunately, many of the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle are now trying to stop us from winning the majority this time by trash-talking our Republican candidates,” Mr. Scott wrote. “It’s an amazing act of cowardice, and ultimately, it’s treasonous to the conservative cause.”

Speaking to reporters in his home state last month, Mr. McConnell conceded that Republicans had a stronger chance of winning back control of the House than the Senate in November.

The weird behavior of a galaxy around a billion light-years away suggests that it might contain one of the most highly anticipated events in modern astronomy.

Fluctuations in light from the center of the galaxy SDSS J1430+2303 look suspiciously like a pair of supermassive black holes with a combined mass of around 200 million Suns destined for an imminent collision with each other.

"Imminent" in cosmic terms can often stretch on for whole lifetimes. Fortunately in this case, astronomers predict that if the signal is indeed the result of colossal black holes they will merge within the next three years.

It may be our best shot yet to see two supermassive black holes collide… but we still don't know for sure if that's what is going on at the heart of J1429+2303. Scientists advise that we continue watching the strange galaxy to see if it can be conclusively identified.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTHR) — Police say they arrested a suspect they believe to have been responsible for shooting three Dutch soldiers, killing one, downtown last Saturday.

Tuesday evening, IMPD said officers arrested 22-year-old Shamar Duncan for murder. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against Duncan, with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of disorderly conduct.

“I hope no one interprets this as the end of the investigation or that no additional charges will be filed or against additional individuals in the future,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.

When the emails first started piling into Latitia Jackson’s inbox about heading back to the office after Labor Day, she and her colleagues figured it wouldn’t really happen.

The Jacksonville, Fla., bank where Jackson, 47, works had pushed back its return-to-office plans many times over the past two years. But now the day is fast approaching, and Jackson is reluctant to trade her jeans and T-shirt for office attire. Nor is she looking forward to being surrounded by people, having grown used to the quiet of her apartment. Coming back on a hybrid schedule helps a little, but it still feels like a downgrade when she’s been happier and more productive working from home.

“I feel like I’m being punished,” Jackson said. “It’s been working so well and now you’re making me go back when I’m doing the exact same job there that I’m doing from home.”

This time last year, companies big and small were gearing up for a push to bring workers back to offices after Labor Day. The same thing is happening now. But this time, the bosses really mean it — probably — which could set companies up for clashes with their workers, experts say.

After Democrat Mary Peltola on Wednesday afternoon heard the results of Alaska’s special U.S. House election, indicating that she would be the state’s next U.S. representative, she embraced campaign staff and kissed her husband as others cheered.

After the Aug. 16 ranked choice election results are certified, Peltola will head to the nation’s capital as the first Alaska Native elected to Congress and the first woman to hold the state’s lone U.S. House seat.

“What’s most important is that I’m an Alaskan being sent to represent all Alaskans. Yes, being Alaska Native is part of my ethnicity, but I’m much more than my ethnicity,” she said.

When asked what her first priorities would be once she arrives in Washington, D.C., Peltola said: “To work for Alaskans, to build partnerships, to build coalitions that we need going forward. Alaska is facing some serious challenges in terms of inflation, in terms of very, very high energy prices. And this is a national, these are national challenges.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed lawmakers to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory not only in Arizona, as previously reported, but also in a second battleground state, Wisconsin, according to emails obtained under state public-records law.

The Washington Post reported this year that Ginni Thomas emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers, some of them twice, in November and December 2020. She urged them to set aside Biden’s popular-vote victory and “choose” their own presidential electors, despite the fact that the responsibility for choosing electors rests with voters under Arizona state law.

The new emails show that Thomas also messaged two Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin: state Sen. Kathy Bernier, then chair of the Senate elections committee, and state Rep. Gary Tauchen. Bernier and Tauchen received the email at 10:47 a.m. on Nov. 9, virtually the same time the Arizona lawmakers received a verbatim copy of the message from Thomas. The Bernier email was obtained by The Post, and the Tauchen email was obtained by the watchdog group Documented and provided to The Post.